The Ideal Length of a Game

I came to a strange realization just recently.  I've noticed lately that games that tell a precise narrative are too long. Games like Mass Effect, Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Metal Gear Games are awesome however they are very lengthy games that were only able to hold my interest for about two hours. The strangest part of this though was that the two hours that I played them, they were great. Why would I want to stop playing a game that i thought was fun and had a great narrative? The only answer that I can really think of was that my attention span was too small.

This is just my experience but I love to customize my character in game I love Minecraft, Skyrim and Saints Row the Third. All games where I can make my character whatever I want and make the character that I want to play.  Thats not to say that I don't enjoy all games like this. I loved Red Dead Redemption and Bioshock Infinite, both games where you play a well developed character. Though I did feel like those game were too long and werent paced appropriately. Bioshock Infinite is close to a 10 hour game but I feel like this game could have been seperated  into two or three hour increments that leave good starting up and leaving off points. I think that games should be paced more like movies or tv shows then the current 9 hour gaming epics we have now. Some games already follow the pattern that describe. If you look at the The Walking Dead game series they have been very successful making games that last around 2 to 3 hours. Also the walking dead is very story driven. If the entire walking dead series had been released in one package it would not have been as effective as it had been.

 The pacing would have had been ridiculous and players would put the game down before the end and possibly forgetting details in between the time that they pick it up again. Also this deal would also be more appealing to the player because instead of having to buy full price game they can buy the first episode for 10 dollars and then addictively buy the other 5 episodes as they are released. More episodical game releases would definetly improves the quality of game that the player is having as well as be benifical for the developer.

~ Jon